Your monument shall be my gentle verse
That eyes not yet created shall o'er read
And tongues to be, your being, shall rehearse
When all the breathers of your world are dead
You still shall live, such virtue hath my pen
Where breath most breathes - in mouths of men

William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

Sunday 25 September 2016

Joshua Ginn jnr of Weston d.1902

Joshua, son of Joshua in my last post was also a Blacksmith.  He married Emily Edwards at Ashwell in 1859.  The couple did not just live in Weston, but moved around  a fair bit on the Hertfordshire/Bedfordshire border.  I have not researched them in detail.  Joshua died in 1902 and Emily in 1925. 

Joshua and Emily had a huge family of thirteen children

Francis Joshua - married Frances Day in 1894.  From 1911 until his death in 1944 they held the "Red Lion" at Weston - below. 


Francis was also a Blacksmith - the family had been blacksmiths in Weston for 200 years and we have this great photo of him below



and he and Frances in later life


They had six children viz

Percy 


 Eustace 



Eleanor Olga 


Albert - who died as a child



George


Arthur Frank






All photos - courtesy of Kathleen Ginn


William - appears to have died infancy

Lilla - married Charles Randall in 1903

Charlotte - married George Mitchell in 1896

Emily - the second married William Logsdon in 1904

Henry - married Florence Wilson in 1899

Cordelia - married Frank Farr in 1899

Arthur married Ada Johnson in 1908

Olga - died infancy

Charles - never married.  Joined the Royal Naval Air Service in WW1 - another pilot in this family

Albert - died in 1917 unmarried

Louisa - believed to have died infancy



Joshua Ginn of Weston d. 1883

Joshua Ginn here (son of William in my post of 1st April 2013 ) was also the Weston village blacksmith.  There are various papers concerning him at the Hertfordshire Record Office.

In 1826 he married Ann Watson, presumably his cousin and he and Ann had various children before Ann sadly died in 1851.  She is buried near the church at Weston - I have seen the grave.


Joshua married Sarah Ann Bateman at Walkern in 1854, the marriage was announced in the "County Press"  Sarah was a widow and her father was a William Hunt.

From the 1850s Joshua began describing himself as an "engineer" , I am not entirely sure what he did - but he seems to have acquired/ inherited a few properties and became quite prosperous by the 1860s.  Unfortunately he seems to have overextended himself, borrowing against them and then borrowing again, and in 1868 all were sold by his creditors at auction and he went bust.  That same year Sarah added insult to injury and divorced him and Joshua moved to  lodgings in Hertford.  He was there in 1871and 1881. He sadly died in Hertford Workhouse in 1883 aged 78.

Joshua and Ann had seven children

George and Sarah - died infancy

Joshua - see next post

John - in 1855 he married Charlotte Newling who originated in the Isle of Man. They never had any children.  John ran his own Agricultural Implement Repair business in Maiden Street, Weston.  Charlotte died in 1875 aged 39 and in 1878 at Chelsea, John remarried an Eliza Parker from Wingfield in Buckinghamshire.  They had a daughter, Mary at Weston in 1880.  John Ginn died at Weston in 1891 aged 61.  What happened to Eliza and Mary is unknown.

Mary - married William Gundwill at Weston in 1844

Francis - he never married and died in Kent in 1873 aged 39.

William - became  a Blacksmith, never married and died in 1880 aged 52.  He is buried with his mother at Weston.

George Ginn of Farnham and Bishops Stortford d. 1880

George here, brother of John in my last post was a Labourer.  Like many of his brothers. he was fairly often in minor trouble with the authorities when a young man.

He got involved with Ann Carter who came from Henham in the late 1820s, and they had William and Ann before they married at Newport in 1831.

In 1851 the couple were at Bishops Stortford (Bramble Field) but they were at the Essex coast (Southend area) in 1861 where some of the Farnham Ginn family ultimately ended up.   Ann died at Bishops Stortford in 1866 with a quoted age of 60.  

In 1871 George was in a lodging house in Bishops Stortford and he died in Bishop Stortford Workhouse in 1880 aged 71,

George and Ann had four children

Ann - apparently died as an infant

William- alive in 1841 but untraced thereafter,   It is unlikely but he may be the William who died in the Northfleet disaster - it is either him or his first cousin - see post of  19th July 2012      


James - the 2nd Battalion of the 10th Regiment of Foot went on a recruitment drive in 1858 as they were shortly going to be sent overseas.  They were quite successful and three recruits were James Ginn here, his first cousin also James Ginn (see post of  19th September 2015   ) and a certain William Wherry.  Wherry was a bit of a hard case until he married and became a changed man, but he served alongside the Ginn boys and as an illustration of this later Sergeant of the 2nd Battalion I post his photo below

     .

James never saw active service, being mostly on garrison duty, either home or abroad.  He served five years in the nice posting of the Cape of Good Hope, ie South Africa, but spent twelve years in India and Burma, enduring their climate and successive bouts of illness.  He could have come home in 1872, but elected to volunteer into the 37th Foot and later the 44th, finally being discharged in 1878 aged 41 "tired and worn out" as the army put it.  He was considered fit only for light work subsequently.


James married Ellen Ginn (nee Prior) widow of his first cousin Edward in 1880 (see last post) and took upon himself responsibility for the stepchildren, having Martha, Ellen (Nellie) , Thomas , Elizabeth and Daisy themselves.  I know that James has no Ginn descendants, but likely has other descendants by his daughters.  Considering his health, he did well to die in 1917 aged 80.  Ellen's death entry is unclear.

George - married Judith Holland at South Shoebury (Southend) in 1856.  They had no less than ten children, one (George) born before the marriage - namely George, Mary, James, Susannah, William, Emily, Eliza, Elizabeth, John and Walter.  The family all decamped to the Southend area where George snr was a Brickmaker.  He died there in 1911, Judith in 1915.  All four sons married and there are a lot of descendants as you might expect.



Sunday 18 September 2016

John Ginn of Farnham d. 1860

John Ginn was a Labourer and son of William in my post of  19th January 2014 .  He always lived in Farnham, and in 1837 the Overseer’s Book notes that an illegitimacy order was made against him in regard to a child.  No further details are given (save that he contributed over £1 to its upkeep).

                                     Farnham Church in 1856

He married Amy Emma Turner at Farnham in 1842.  Amy came from Bishops Stortford.

In 1851 the family (John, Amy and Henry and Edward) were living at Farnham Green.  Their house was shared with Timothy, John’s brother who emigrated to Australia shortly afterwards.

Like the majority of his brothers, John was not one to avoid trouble and there are one or two references to him in the Quarter Sessions records.  The family were often on poor relief.

John Ginn died in 1860; he was 53 and his death was registered under the name of Gin.  Amy Emma remarried in 1861.  In the 1861 Census she was living with Henry and Edward in Bishops Stortford and was a Charwoman. 


Their children

Cornelius and George - two Georges and Cornelius died infancy

Henry - married Mary Bayford at Bishops Stortford in  1863.  Henry was a Carpenter. Henry died 1912 and Mary in 1917.  They had no less than ten children, including four sons - John (a Coachman)  William (who later used the surname Genn) Alfred (a House Painter) and David Cornelius (a soldier)  All married.  David Cornelius was a Sergeant in the 15th Hussars and died in South Africa in 1910

                       
                        
                                                       Cabinet card - Sgt 15th Hussars 1890s

Edward - married Ellen Prior at Farnham in 1868.  I know very little about the couple.  They had for children including three sons, Edward Prior, Cornelius and Alfred Timothy.   Edward died between 1874 and 1880, but I have never found a burial entry.  His widow remarried Ted's first cousin James Ginn  (son of George - see next post) and the whole family eventually moved to the Southend area